Ready and Waiting To Fall
by Stylin'Fire
Summary: Taylor questions her feelings for Chad before the after party. Chad wonders if he is good enough to be with Taylor. Will they figure out how they feel for each other? Oneshot


First HSM story, so be nice! I don't own the song that is used is part of the story, it is called "Ready and Waiting To Fall" by Mae. I also don't own HSM. Please review!

**Ready and Waiting To Fall**

Taylor McKessie walked the halls of her school, nobody was there, and no one ever was because it was a Saturday. Why is she at school on a _Saturday_ you ask? Well the explanation is simple really, she needed to think. The only other person who knew about her secret hiding place from her problems, Gabriella Montez, her best friend, and the one person she could trust with all of her secrets.

She had called Gabriella before she left; to tell her friend where she was if she was needed. Gabriella had asked if she was OK, but Taylor brushed her off, saying that she just needed to think. She had her phone with her, but decided to turn it off so that she would have no interruptions.

She stopped in front of the Science room, when she needed to think, this is where she went. She would mix chemicals to forget all of her problems. She didn't have any current problems, but she still needed to think.

Through all of her years of schooling, she was the _Smart Girl _the _Nerd_ and the _Geek_. She never wanted to be those things; she wanted to just be Taylor. She had friends, and most people liked her, the popular crowd just didn't like her. She never knew why these people didn't like her; she had known most of them since first grade. She was only kidding herself; she knew why they didn't like her.

It can be summed up with two words, and one name, and one relationship. Chad Danforth. The best friend of the Captain of the Basketball team, and co-captain of the same team. He was never really mean to her in elementary school, but once they hit middle school, everything changed.

He started to make fun of her, and once he started, she became a mere geek to the student population. The whole school listened to the jocks, and they were bound to listen to Chad, because his best friend was Troy Bolton.

Taylor heaved a great sigh, he had asked her out after the Championship game, she had accepted, but now she wondered if she had made the right decision. She did like him, but she would never fit into his world of sports and popularity. The after party was starting at 10:00 and it was only 5:00 now. Taylor looked through the chemicals before deciding which ones she would mix together. She turned to the CD player that sat on the table next to her and turned it on. She lost herself in her work.

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"Troy, I don't know what to do!" Chad yelled as he paced around his bedroom.

"What are you talking about Chad?" Troy asked as he tried to calm down his friend.

"Taylor." Chad said as he ran his hands through his bushy hair.

"What about her?" Troy asked.

"I like her, not as just a friend, I like her so much more then that." Chad started.

"And the problem is?" Troy asked his friend as his own eyebrows rose in confusion. He didn't really see the problem with liking girls; Chad liked many different girls throughout his sixteen years of life. There didn't seem to be much of a problem, well, at least not that Troy could see.

"I want to be with her Troy, but I am a screw up, what if I screw this up? What if she never wants to see me again?" Chad asked as he sat onto the floor.

"I was so mean to her throughout the years Troy, what if she can't forgive me for all of the pain that I put her through?" Chad asked as he tilted his head back.

"You care about her, her personality, not just the way she looks, right?" Troy asked.

"Of course I do! I love how she is can make me laugh, how she is so smart, and how she is so nice." Chad said as he got a dazed expression on his face. Troy put his hands in front of Chad's face to snap him out of the daze.

"Then tell her." Troy said simply.

"But how?" Chad asked in defeat.

"Go to her, and just tell her that you like her and that you want to be with her." Troy explained.

"I think I will call her first." Chad said as he pulled out his cell phone. He dialed the number and it rang three times.

"_Hey, you have reached Taylor, I can't hear the ringing of my phone right now, or my phone is turned off at the moment, so please leave a message at the beep. Thanks!"_ the answering machine said. Chad hung up the phone and sighed.

"Answering machine." Chad said when Troy raised an eyebrow at him in question.

"We can call Gabriella." Troy suggested. Chad nodded his head. Gabriella would know where her best friend was.

Troy pulled out his phone and called his new girlfriend, he had asked her out right after he got her alone.

"Hello?" Gabriella answered.

"Gabbi, it's me. I was wondering if Chad and I could meet you at your house. We have to ask you some questions. Is that ok?" Troy asked with a small smile.

"Of course. Come on over." Gabriella said before she hung up.

"Lets go to Gabriella's." Troy said as he and Chad both stood up and walked out of the house.

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Chad and Troy walked up to Gabriella's front door and Troy knocked on the door as Chad stood with his hands in his pockets impatiently.

Gabriela opened the door and led them into the Living Room of her house. Chad and Troy both sat down on a couch while Gabriella sat down across from them. She bit her lip to show that she was confused.

"Gabriella, Chad here has a question for you." Troy said as he pointed to his best friend that sat next to him on the couch.

"OK." Gabriella said as she turned her attention to Chad.

"Do you know where Taylor is Gabbi? I tried to call her, and she didn't pick up" Chad said as he looked down at his shoes.

"Why do you need to know where she is?" Gabriella asked as she tilted her head slightly.

"I need to talk to her, I need to tell her some things and I need to know how she feels about me. So will you help me, your boyfriends best friend, and one of your friends?" Chad asked as a slight blush crept up his neck and to his cheeks.

"I know where she is…" Gabriella started. She bit her lip again, but this time it was in hesitation.

"So then, where is she?" Chad prodded. He needed to talk to Taylor, if he didn't he felt like he would literally go insane.

"I don't know if I should tell you. Not because I don't want to, I really do, but it is Taylor's secret to tell not mine." Gabriella rambled.

"What secret?" Troy asked, coming into the conversation again.

"I guess I can tell you." Gabriella said as she sighed.

Chad straightened in his seat and listened carefully.

"It's not really a secret, more of a secret place. When Taylor has to think, or take her mind off of things she goes to the school. She goes into the science room and listens to music while she mixes chemicals. She only goes there when she is mad, trying to figure out some sort of problem, or if she just needs to think." Gabriella explained.

"Why is she there now?" Chad asked, confused by her explanation.

"I don't know." Gabriella said sadly.

"Wait. Did I do something wrong? Did I screw this up already?" Chad asked himself.

"I don't know, she called and told me where she was so that I wouldn't worry about her. She always calls me and tells me, I think that it is in case of an emergency, you know, like I need to find her right away or something. I asked if she was OK, but she just denied it. So I don't really know." Gabriella said softly.

"I need to talk to her." Chad said as he got up off the couch and walked out of Gabriella's house, slamming the door behind his retreating figure, leaving two very stunned people in his wake.

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Taylor was still mixing chemicals, swaying to the music that poured out of the CD player. She was trying to forget her problems, but they kept popping into her head. All sorts of questions were begging to be answered.

_Can I trust him?_ She thought. _Will he leave me with a broken heart?_ She asked herself. She could take the physical pain, but no the heartbreak kind. _Could he change into the guy that she knew he could be?_ Her mind asked.

The answer to all of these questions, she didn't know. That answer was completely unwanted.

"I can't keep thinking about him!" She shouted at herself. She sighed once again and she lost herself in the music. This song seemed to explain how she felt when Chad had held her in his arms while he asked her out. Ready and Waiting to Fall by Mae. She felt like her would was spinning. She liked this song, it was her song, and so she started to sing with it.

Drowning just as fast as I can  
But don't throw me a line  
Don't reach out your hand  
Cause I'm on the brink of something beautiful  
And I want to sing about it  
But I don't know where to begin  
Write a letter  
But the words don't come out right  
Try and explain how nobody can do me like  
You don't understand how helpless I can get  
Since the day that we met  
Oh can you feel it yet?

It's never been more perfect being alive  
I've never been so satisfied  
Oh, Oh, Oh

I could feel something different from the first time  
Heaven made sense  
And all the words rhymed  
No chance in stopping now  
I'm taking it all  
And now I'm caught in the air  
It's a good glide  
Pass it up, wouldn't dare  
Oh, What a wild ride  
I remember being ready  
And waiting to fall  
Just like I did tonight

Taylor continued to sing the song, not once thinking that she was being watched.

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Chad walked down the hall to the Science room; he heard music coming from it and stood at the open door. Watching Taylor sway to the music while mixing some sort of chemicals. She was singing along with the song, and he was surprised at how good of a singer she was.

She wore a knee length light pink skirt that was swaying slights as Taylor's hips moved to the beat, but the outfit was completed with a light yellow shirt and necklace. Her hair was down in soft curls that moved with her body as she danced and sang to the music.

She didn't notice that he was there, so he cleared his throat loudly. Taylor jumped and stopped singing. She turned around slowly and saw Chad standing there.

Chad walked up to her in his baggy blue jeans, and a red shirt. When he reached her he smiled softly.

"How did you find me?" Taylor asked, her voice soft.

"I asked Gabriella. I needed to talk to you and I couldn't find you so, I asked." Chad said.

"What did you need to talk to me about?" Taylor asked as she turned back to her chemicals.

"Please don't turn away." Chad pleaded. Taylor sighed and turned back around to face him again.

"Tell me." Taylor demanded in a soft voice.

"Taylor, I like you, I mean I really like you. I want to be with you," Chad began. He ran his hands through his bushy hair, Taylor noticed that his hands were shaking slightly, and she wondered why they were doing that.

"But." Taylor said. She knew that there was a but coming up, she just didn't want to hear it.

"But, I can't be the perfect boyfriend, the boyfriend that you deserve, I don't get A's in school, I don't always think before I act, and I am not the nicest person in the world, we both know that." Chad said as he looked at Taylor. She turned her head away from him.

"I like you, but you deserve so much better. I made fun of you for years, and I can't expect you to forgive me for making your life a living hell." Chad stated.

" I love everything about you Taylor, your laugh, the energy that you give off when you enter the room, and I like the person I become when I am with you. But I can't be the boyfriend that you deserve, I want to be, but I don't think that I can." Chad said, as his voice grew shaky with pent up emotion.

Chad noticed tears welling up in her eyes. "No Baby, don't cry, please, that's not what I wanted." Chad begged.

"Chad, I don't need perfection. The only thing I need is to be able to trust you, trust you not to break my heart." Taylor said as her tears fell down her face slowly. Chad's hand came up to her face and wiped away a stray tear.

"What I need the most in this world is to be loved, by you." Taylor finished, more tears coming out of her dark brown eyes.

"Don't worry about the past, I think that we were both young and stupid. That is all in the past now. I can move on, heck, I already have moved on. So we can both just forget about that, and move on. Maybe then things will be normal, or maybe as normal as they were, or ever could be." Taylor said as she blew a strand of her dark hair out of her eyes.

"I love when you smile Chad, I love the look on your face when you don't understand something, but most of all, I love that you care so much about me, and that you are willing to give up the chance to be with me so that I could supposedly be happy. But the thing is Chad, I wouldn't be happy." Taylor said. "I wouldn't be happy because you wouldn't be part of my life. I don't need perfection Chad, all I need, all I could ever want, is you." Taylor said, taking Chad's hand and looking up into his dark eyes as Chad's eyes lit up. His eyes had tears in them too, but he blinked them away quickly.

"I love you." Chad said as he looked down at her.

"I love you too." Taylor said as she was pulled into a big hug. Chad was hugging her tightly, afraid to let go. He was hoping to God that this was not a dream, because if it were, he would be extremely upset.

"Does this mean that we are dating?" Chad asked hopefully. Taylor put her fingers under her chin, acting like she had to think about his offer, when in reality, she would say yes in a heartbeat, she just enjoyed playing with his head.

Taylor giggled at his enthusiasm. "Yes it does." Taylor said as she was swept back into his arms. He planted kisses all over her face, then their lips met in a passionate kiss.

Chad was surprised when Taylor deepened the kiss, but he complied enthusiastically. He loved the way that she made him feel, and this felt right to him. He just hoped that he could keep her in his arms forever.

When they pulled apart, Taylor was smiling broadly. "You do know that not many people are going accept our relationship, don't you Chad?" Taylor asked as she bit her bottom lip.

"I don't really care what they think. But if they mess with _my _girl, they will have to deal with the Great Chad Danforth!" Chad said as he puffed out his chest.

"You are an idiot Chad." Taylor said as she hit him softly on the back of the head with a laugh. Although hitting him on the back of the head wasn't that effective, considering he had a pillow of his very own, his hair.

"You're right, I am an idiot. But I am not just any idiot, I am _your _idiot!" Chad said happily as he wrapped his arm around Taylor's shoulder.

"What am I going to do with you?" Taylor asked herself. She heaved a dramatic sigh at the thought.

"You are going to love me, kiss me, hold my hand, and let me love you will all of my heart." Chad said seriously.

"I would like that, a lot." Taylor said as she looked up into his dark brown eyes.

"Good." Chad said before he captured her lips again, but this time it was a sweet kiss that left them both with very wide smiles upon their faces.

He grasped her hand tightly in his own as they walked out of the Science room, then out of the school.

As they walked Taylor realized that when she had first met Chad she felt something for him, and she had lived her life without him for sixteen years, and she didn't want to live without him anymore. He captured her heart when she was Ready and Waiting To Fall, in love.

Ready and Waiting to fall  
I could feel something different from the first time  
Heaven made sense  
And all the words rhymed  
No chance in stopping now  
I'm taking it all  
And now I'm caught in the air  
It's a good glide  
Pass it up, wouldn't dare  
Oh, What a wild ride  
I remember being ready  
And waiting to fall  
Just like I did tonight.

-Ready and Waiting To Fall-

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